Faculty Book: Daniel Gerould

Daniel Gerould and Marvin Carlson

Though the reputation of French playwright René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773-1844) has waned since his heyday in the years following the French Revolution, the past 20 years have brought about a resurgence of interest in the "father of melodrama," author of 120 plays. This volume contains four of his most important melodramas: The Ruins of Babylon or Jafar and Zaida, The Dog of Montatgis or The Forest of Bondy, Christopher Columbus or The Discovery of the New World, and Alice or The Scottish Gravediggers, as well as Charles Nodier's "Introduction" to the 1843 Collected Edition of Pixérécourt's plays and the two theoretical essays by the playwright, "Melodrama," and "Final Reflections on Melodrama." Daniel Gerould is Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center; Marvin Carlson is Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center.